Spend time with one of South Africa’s leading engineering firms. We work with employers in gas and oil, energy, food and drink, environmental regulations, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and more. Our chemical engineering internships provide you with the opportunity to gain practical and professional experience in your field and apply your classroom-based knowledge to real-life projects.
The best chemical engineering internships in Cape Town? We think so. We pride ourselves on delivering customised internship placements and on the ground support that offer life-changing, valuable professional experiences.
We collaborate with some of the leading engineering firms in South Africa and can facilitate opportunities in a number of areas including; energy, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, environmental regulations, food and drink, manufacturing and more.
Our internship programme enables you to gain practical experience, work alongside experienced professionals and gain an in-depth understanding of your industry in an international setting.
Completing a chemical engineering internship with Bridging Gaps will also help narrow your focus and advise you about the context of your career, which is important in such a diverse field.
Read on for a full overview of the best chemical engineering internships in Africa.
Here's what you can expect from the programme in a nutshell!
Of course, the list is much longer - but these are the skills our intern alumni reported back that they grew in the most!
We managed to grab some detailed interviews from previous interns on this programme, you can click on them below.
What might your programme in this career field look like? Here's how it has typically shaped up for our alumni!
Arrival & orientation. Introduction to Cape Town, your accommodation and your internship host organisation and colleagues.
Get stuck into your engineering internship placement and establish yourself with your organisation. Come to our free social events.
Enjoy a great work-life balance, getting out and about to see the sites alongside working hard on your internship.
Pick up more responsibility in your internship as you prove your capability. Enjoy regular activities in Cape Town outside of work. Come to another social!
Now you’re flying (metaphorically) at work, you’ll be more and more autonomous. Expect to pick up even more challenges!
Internship is going swimmingly, now go and do something crazy like swimming with some great white sharks or abseiling off of a mountain.
Regularly enjoy the benefits of Cape Town and at work, gather materials needed for portfolio (e.g. references from us and provider).
Putting the finishing touches to your internship and gathering feedback from us and your internship provider for use in your academic / career portfolio. Finalise paperwork for university (if needed)
Here's what others said when they applied. Some of these people came just for this career area, some mixed it with other career fields too...
What makes our internship programmes a worthwhile investment? Here's a swift overview of what you can expect!
We have two primary programmes to suit your needs. In some instances we also offer virtual placements.
You can come for as long as you need without paying any extra fees.You'll receive the same level of support.
We are 100% on your side. We guarantee every aspect of your trip with unrivalled promises.
Need to focus on a precise niche or two? No problem! Your programme can focus on your specialist areas.
We'll help you engage with the culture and personal benefits of being in a foreign country.
Save on travel and accommodation costs, pay a far lower fee. All while building your professional network.
We will handle all aspects of academic accreditation, including direct liaison with your tutors and academic staff.
We will write full reference letters for your placement(s) to optimise future employers' first impression of you.
ACTION
Here are some current or recent internship job opportunities in this career area. We do not publish all openings - so please contact us to hear about others.
Get in touch.
We have worked very hard to streamline our process to make your experience easy, fun and highly rewarding personally and professionally. Flick through the steps below, or read about our process in more detail.
Getting your dream internship all starts with you saying hello! Just pop your details into our enquiry form and we'll reach out to schedule a conversation with you that we call a 'discovery call'.
In your discovery call, you can ask us any questions you still have. We'll talk about your options in the career fields you've told us you're interested in to help you imagine your placement and decide if our service is right for you.
If everything sounds good to you, complete your application to put into words your dream programme. This forms the basis of the 'design' of your customised placement and will be the primary framework against which we validate potentially suitable opportunities.
We maintain a large and varied network of the best organisations in Cape Town. We will identify the best potential fits for your programme goals and preferences and reach out on your behalf to assess those organisations for suitability (learn about their current projects and initiatives).
Once you've confirmed which placement offer you prefer, we'll start helping you plan the rest of your trip. We'll book your accommodation, help with your travel arrangements and provide extensive advice and information on how to get ready for your time in Cape Town. Your Bridging Gaps mentor will be on hand to make sure you're fully prepared for your placement.
Finally, every member of our team will move mountains to make sure you get what you came for and MORE! It's essential to us that you're safe, you're learning and growing in confidence and developing the most important skills for your future career.
Our programme fees are shown below, for a full description of our service offering please click to view the programme or a side-to-side comparison.
Comprehensive support
Visa & travel assist
Accommodation assistance
Social events & excursions
... and lots more
We've answered some specific questions about this internship programme below.
This depends on a number of factors including the country in question, the field of engineering,and the academic level of the candidates. It can be difficult to secure an internship in certain fields such as aerospace engineering, however, there are a lot of internship opportunities within mechanical, chemical, industrial, electrical and civil engineering. Most of the companies we work with here in South Africa are happy to offer an intern a placement if they have completed at least one year of study in their respective field.
Since South African law prohibits any foreign nationals from doing any form of paid work in the country without a valid working visa, all engineering internship opportunities for international visitors are unpaid. Local South African's can get paid for an internship, however paid opportunities are difficult to find. A lot of companies offer a small stipend to cover travel and other costs. The wage that engineering interns can expect to earn in other countries very much depends on their location and the field of engineering. Opportunities in petroleum and aerospace engineering tend to offer some of the highest salaries.
Our engineering internships are a minimum of two weeks, however we suggest at least four weeks or more to give you the necessary time to get involved with the company's projects and gain more confidence in your work.
There are a lot of different possible careers in science. Some of the highest-earning positions in science include; physicists, astronomers, pharmacists, geoscientists, biochemists and medical scientists. Chemical and nuclear engineering are also lucrative career paths.
Send it to us below and we will answer ASAP.
Hi, we're really sorry but we are no longer offering internship opportunities in this career field. However, we wish you the best with your search.